Post-vacation blues or something

It's been a week since we've gotten back from our delightful trip back home after 1.5 years! It was so wonderful to see my family again! I really had a great time, so thank you to everyone I was able to see for making my trip truly memorable :) I have to say it was a much needed and much appreciated vacation and I finally feel like I can see the end of my time here and will be able to maintain my sanity for another 6 months... maybe. That's the hope anyway -- we shall see what the reality is soon enough.

The first day back at work was nice. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and after 3 weeks at home of 95% gray and rainy/snowy weather, this was incredible to come back to! This winter here has been a balmy 50F -- much warmer than usual, but I'm sooo not complaining! I like having my own computer back and sleeping in my own bed again and getting back into the routine felt good. It all felt... normal again I guess. Normal in its abnormality. And it all felt really good for about... one day. Then the novelty of being back was over and I wondered if my trip back home ever happened at all! It seemed to go by in such a blur of activity that it all seems like it was just a dream -- a good dream, but a dream nonetheless. This realization makes me really sad. I don't want to be readjusted so quickly to life as a foreigner (read: funny monkey clown to point/gawk at and take pictures of). Being back in America was so much more relaxing in a way. Driving was the pits, though. People say it's like riding a bike, which it kind of is, but you still might be a bit wobbly and uncoordinated at first, which I was (mostly on the freeways in the dark and pouring rain). And I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wanted to, though hopefully those who did get pics of Christmas etc. will post them online soon so I can steal.... I mean look at them, hehe! (That was a major, not-so-subtle hint to GET YOUR PICS UP! ... though I've been lazy and haven't gotten around to it either...)

The food back home was oh so yummy, but we didn't end up taking back any peanut butter -- something I really needed here. Oh well. And I would have liked to pack some cheese, too, but that would have been really heavy. As it turns out, our bags were overweight as it was and we had to unpack all our stuff at the counter (my pajamas, socks, and dirty clothes tumbling out for all to see!) and put it in to a 3rd bag (thank goodness I thought to bring an extra!). The flight itself was ok, pretty uneventful. We were conked most of the time due to Adam's sleeping pills and a glass of wine -- it was amazing! And I'm proud to say I didn't drool all over myself this time, hehe. However, since we were late taking off in Seattle due to de-icing, we were late getting into Seoul, Korea. We'd only had an hour for our connection to begin with so 3/4's of the way into the flight I started getting kinda panicky that we were going to miss the flight to Japan. I knew if this happened there wouldn't be another flight until the next day and we'd miss a day of work. We didn't have classes so it wouldn't have been THAT big of a deal, but I had no way of contacting people to let them know what had happened.... AND they could have been bastards and made us take an extra day of vacation.

BUT, we ended up JUST making the flight! Running off the plane some guy was shouting out "Osaka! Anyone for Osaka?" "YES!! YES WE ARE!!" we screamed. So he ushered us and one other guy past everyone else and to the gate where they were all ready to close and take-off! We were the last ones on and before we'd even buckled our seat-belts we were already pulling away. I instantly broke into tears from stress, fatigue, the screaming little kids in front of us and general miserableness... and the thought that I'd have to be at work the next day (grrr).

When we got into Osaka, a lady pulled us aside and told us that since we got in so late, they hadn't had time to transfer our luggage and we'd have to fill out all these forms in order for them to (maybe) come tomorrow. By this time, I was so worn out I was beyond protest but made sure she knew that ALL my clean work clothes were in my luggage and I absolutely needed them by the next day. I admit, I exaggerated slightly, but I really did need my bag! (I had packed an extra pair of undies, but that was it. I had to wear the same clothes to work the next day.) We finally got home on the last train at 11:30pm, were in bed by 12:30am and up again for work at 6:30am!

Anyway, sorry for zipping around in the time-line here... that was a pretty exhausting day, but we're finally back into the swing of things and I had my first lessons of the new term today. I only have 3 weeks of lessons and then am off again from mid-February to mid-April. "Off" meaning sitting at my desk with nothing to do, of course. During those 2 months, however, Adam's brother Alex and his significant other Chesney are going to be visiting, which should be a lot of fun. We're also taking a trip with some friends to Singapore and the Malaysian provinces on Borneo. I'm really looking forward to that!

I'm sure we'll continue to try and keep ourselves amused here. There's still a lot we haven't seen so we'll try and do something every weekend. This last Sunday we went to a market at a temple near Kyoto, called Toji. They not only had typical yummy festival/market food but also loads of random stuff to buy from used kimonos to art to honey and knick-knacks. Basically, a huge flea market but with nice things. We sampled some locally made honey, which was sooooo delicious we had to buy some! The kind we got was mikan-honey. Mikan are satsuma mandarins, so I'm sure you can imagine how yummy it was!

Then we saw this guy selling his calligraphy. It was one Chinese character on a beautiful background. They came in many different colors and were absolutely gorgeous. Adam and I kind of have a calligraphy/Asian theme going on with our decorations so we bought a couple. Actually all of us (Josy, Kendra, Leigh, Adam and I) ended up getting them! During this time, however, we attracted quite the crowd of onlookers for some reason. I really didn't understand why they thought we were so special since I'd seen quite a few other foreigners there besides us. In any event, they all got out their cameras and started taking pictures of us buying the prints. I still have no idea why they thought this was so fascinating. At one point, I turned to Josy (who, btw, is fluent in Japanese and works in the Board of Education), who was standing on my left, and she looked a little freaked out. When I asked her what was wrong she replied, "They're all taking pictures of us! Why are they doing that?" I said, "Really?" because by this time, I still hadn't noticed them. "Yeah," she said, "Look over your left shoulder...." As I turned my head all of a sudden I see this huge paparazzi-size telephoto lens practically sitting on my shoulder and snapping away at our faces! (This time, I'm not exaggerating and Adam and Josy can back me up on this.) I was so startled that I turned toward the perpetrator going, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!!" The lady smiled and laughed a little and said, "Ah, gomen!" ("Oh, sorry!") Well... she sure didn't look sorry!

I just can't believe that someone would have the gall to stick a camera literally IN our faces 1) at all; 2) without permission; and 3) without feeling like a complete asswipe. Honestly, now?! Josy, who NEVER gets mad or raises her voice, was just as shocked and offended as I was and neither of us said anything in retaliation because at the time we really were too stunned to say anything at all. She said they liked my blond hair, but then countered that with "But, my hair isn't blond! Why are they taking pictures of me??" Anyway, baffled and tired of the crushing crowds of mean old women, we retreated to the 1 public bathroom and waited in line 15 mins for a 30 second wee and then stumbled out of the temple grounds to slightly less populated streets. During this whole ordeal, which was fun, 'cause we got some really neat things, but irritating because the crowds were so dense you could only move a centimeter per second, I said to Adam, "You know, I really don't understand why they think it's a bad thing that the birthrate is declining so much. Sure it'll affect the economy and they're scared as all hell about importing foreign workers, but shit... who the HELL can stand so many people??? This country is sooo overpopulated, it's ridiculous!" He agreed.

Another incident last week that harshly reminded me I was back in Japan and NOT Japanese was the other day when Adam and I were making the 100yd stroll to the supermarket. Waiting to cross the street where a mom and her 3 little kids were waiting as well, the kids start pointing and saying "Ohhh foreigners! I wonder if they speak English?? I wonder if they're American?" The mom had the decency to slap the kid's hand as he pointed but didn't stop him from jabbering away. "They probably are American, honey", she calmly replied.

Just think about this and tell me 1) if this would ever happen in America; 2) if it did, what would the mom have done to the kids? 3) if the mom and kids had done the same thing, how would the foreigner (or anyone who looks slightly different) have reacted? We obviously understood everything they were saying and they obviously thought we didn't. We had the urge to turn around and, in Japanese, say "Oh Adam, look at the Japanese kids! That's amazing! I wonder if they speak Japanese?" (Actually it would have had a better and more insulting effect if we'd openly wondered if they were Korean or Chinese.) Unfortunately, we didn't think of that until later and were then kicking ourselves. I wish, for once, that I would think of these retaliatory remarks on the spot instead of 5 minutes later as I'm steaming from the incident. It didn't bother me so much that the kids were curious -- kids are kids and that's normal. I was bothered by the fact that the mom didn't stop them or say, "Honey, shhh, that's rude" or something of the sort. Anyway, stuff like this happens every day and I had forgotten about that. (Last night there was a gross, creepy old man who was standing in front of us and staring intently at Josy, Leigh and I as we were talking and then later he went over to Adam and asked if we were from England...)

OK well enough of all that. I'm back in Japan. I'm weird, I'm blonde, I'm tall and I have a bumpy face. I speak English, I have hips, I have big feet, and I have long legs. I don't wear skanky mini-skirts with fish-net stockings, nor do I dye my hair orange. I smell like cheese, I brush my teeth, I need deodorant and I'm not ashamed of using tampons. I don't eat natto, I'm not a fan of fish heads, but I LOVE spicy food. I hate my job, but I'm here for 6 more months so I might as well make the best of it, suck it up and deal with it. Right? Right.